History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 94

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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In conclusion I express the hope that this Exposition may tend to de- velop the industry of the vast region naturally looking to this city as the centre of its trade. Especially I hope our neighbors of Kentucky will aid us to be better friends, by allowing free railroad communica- tion over her soil. We are all citizens of a great and powerful country, each State and section contributing by some production to the grandeur

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of the whole. Let us develop the Union which God ordained, which he has bound together by great rivers and chains of mountains, and girdled with oceans and lakes. In the speedy future all our civil com- motions, all our political differences, will be forgotten in our pride for the industry, growth, and magnificence of our common country.

The attendance was exceedingly limited the first even- ing. Inferring from the figures of the treasurer's final report (receipts from tickets September 2Ist, one hun- dred and ninety dollars and fifty cents), but three hun- dred and eighty-one persons paid for admission ; so that, with officers, exhibitors, and employes, probably not more than five hundred were scattered through the huge build- ings upon the occasion of their opening. During the whole of the next day, reasoning from similar data, but eight hundred and fifty-five persons paid for entrance. The general committee now saw that the price of admis- sion first fixed (fifty cents) was too high. The exhibition was for all, employer and employed, rich and poor, the upper ten thousand and the lower million; and it was re- solved that the rate of admission, after the second day, should be popular and cheap. Twenty-five cents was fixed as the price, which has since been steadily maintained. Coupon tickets, admitting five or ten persons, could be had at one dollar and two dollars, respectively ; and manu- facturers might purchase tickets for their employes, in packages of twenty, at five dollars per package. Chil- dren were to be admitted at ten cents each. The attend- ance now increased rapidly. On the third day about two thousand and fifty visitors were present ; and the numbers grew nearly every day thereafter, until the culmination of the display on the fifth of October, only a fortnight after the opening, when they reached nineteen thousand-a quite remarkable attendance for the first in the series of expositions, and about thrice as many as were commonly in attendance at the World's Fair of 1853, in New York city. Upon eight days besides this, the receipts from sale of tickets were above two thousand dollars, and at no time after September 28th, until the close of the Exposition, did they fall below one thousand one hundred and ninety- five dollars and seventy-five cents, the amount received that day for admissions. The whole number of visitors during the twenty-seven days and twenty-eight evenings it was open, was about three hundred thousand. The pop- ular patronage, part of it from places a long way off in this and other States, together with receipts from exhibit- ors, refreshment privileges, buildings and materials, and a single donation of fifty dollars from the First National bank of Cincinnati, enabled the committee to meet all demands without touching the guarantee fund, and, as already stated, to leave a good-sized nest egg in the treasury.

The exhibition, although but a beginning of the great expositions, was amply worthy of all and more than the patronage it received. During the second week every- thing was got in place and the machinery was in full operation. By the middle of the week the display was nearly at its best. Colonel Maxwell has some brilliant paragraphs in description of the great exhibit, from which we select two or three, the first and last being of especial local interest:

That which had been done surprised almost all; for few had the facil-

ities of knowing how varied and interesting and extensive were the manufactures of Cincinnati and the west. How many knew before the Exposition of textile fabrics in 1869 that the best worsted dress-braids produced in the United States, if not in the world, were made in Cin- cinnati? Who was aware of the fact that a German in the same city was manufacturing the only wool plushes made in this country-goods entering largely into both railroad cars and furniture? Again, how few knew the character and extent of the manufactories in this city of the common white and granite wares, articles as necessary to every house- hold as the table upon which the poor woman spreads her scanty meal, and that two establishments were actively engaged in this busi- ness, bringing their clays from many States? There were on exhibition about two hundred separate pieces, embracing almost everything in the shape of whiteware. The quality was surprising. There was granite with a gold band, which was beautiful, and full sets that were hardly inferior to the old ironstone china. The visitor would find two pitchers, one marked with the Cincinnati inaker, and the other with the foreign manufacturer. If he took them to the light and carefully in- spected them, unless he were an expert he would not detect the differ- ence. Did not this mean revolution-ultimately a great change iu the whole matter of queensware business! A few years ago we had only the yellow-ware; then we made the common white; at the Exposition we had the granite. With such testimony as this before him, was it not natural for the visitor to ask : Will not, in a comparatively few years, the millions we are paying to England for such productions be kept at home, and the operatives be fed with the produce of our own country?

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that all were pleased. Those having the best opportunity of listening to the grumblers of the world heard no disparaging words spoken of the display. Of course it did not move all alike. There were thousands of curious persons who, doubtless, wandered through the halls merely to gratify their curiosity, and as many thousand were superficial observers, who did not dig down below the surface of this show of domestic manufactures and products and fine arts, to see what all these surface indications meant. But there were many more who not only took pleasure in the individual articles to be seen, but valued them still more because they looked upon these specimens ot beautiful agricultural machinery ; these handsome carriages ; useful stoves and ranges; these steam-engines, flouring-mills, saw-mills, shingle-machines, planers, punches, and drills; these looms, bung-machines, type found- ries, printing-presses, and pumps; these water-wheels, street-sweepers, and emery-grinders; these granite plates, pitchers, teas, and bowls; these bedsteads, bureaus, sideboards, tables, and chairs; these sheet- ings, cassimeres, plushes, jeans, shawls, blankets, yarns, and zephyrs; these battings, waddings, warps, twines, and ropes; these boots and shoes, hats and caps, furs, raw silks, silk sewings, millinery goods, and gentlemen's furnishing goods; these wall papers, window shades, car- pets, and rugs; these rolls of leather; these goods made from wire and bristles; these iron safes, scales, builders' materials, knives, mechanics' tools, locks, doors, window-shutters, and paints; these trunks and satchels; these beautiful household goods made from iron and tin and zinc and wood; these refrigerators, japan-wares, works in copper and brass and marble; these sugars, soaps, candles, oils, provisions, breads, and tobaccos; these medical preparations; these sewing-machines, mantels, pictures, photographs, engravings, wax and hair-works, musi- cal instruments, moldings, artificial teeth, dental tools, silver-wares, philosophical instruments, and thousands upon thousands of things use- ful and beautiful-looked upon them as the miner looks upon the gold- bearing rocks which speak of wealth below the surface, of riches which the precious metal, here and there sparkling from its rocky bed, an- nounces within.

Few persons, before the exposition, were aware of the manufactur- ing importance of Cincinnati. Even our own citizens looked at the aggregate sum of the production of the city without fully comprehend- ing the inventive skill that was exercised, the mind which was taxed, the muscle that was employed, and the mighty interests that were in- volved. It required some ocular demonstration adequately to impress our own people with the length, and breadth, and depth, of the busi- ness foundations of the Queen City, which have enabled her comfortably to weather the financial storms which have sorely distressed other cities, and to enable them properly to estimate the true relation which our manufacturcs bear to the general prosperity. In the variety and splen- dor of the display, in the thirty thousand different articles on cxhi- bition, representing one thousand seven hundred and thirty entries, they were able to read the secret of Cincinnati's stability and that which was to prove one of her principal bulwarks in the future. For, though Connecticut, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisi-

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ana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maine, Missouri, New Jer- sey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wis- consin-twenty-four States in all-were represented, and many valuable contributions came from other cities and places, nevertheless it was pre- eminently an exhibition of Cincinnati manufactures. In some of the departments our own manufacturers were the sole contributors, and in all of them they held an honorable position, in both number and the quality of their wares.

The interest in the exhibition, growing day by day, had caused the postponement of the day of closing one week-from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of Octo- ber. The time of closing, on a thronged and busy Saturday night, at last arrived. The difficult work of making the awards had been completed. The prizes, eighteen gold medals, one hundred and thirty-two large silver medals, seventy-six small ones, besides four hun- dred and ninety-two elegantly engraved diplomas, all to- gether costing about seven thousand dollars-had been distributed. Sixty-five thousand persons had visited the exposition during its final week. In the midst of distin- guished and proud success it was to close. At 9 P. M. of the day named the rattle and hum of the wilderness of machinery was stilled. Fifteen minutes' further grace was granted the throng by President Wilstach, when the usual signal was given for closing, the crowd of visitors reluctantly retired, the officers one by one left the build- ing, and the first of the famous industrial expositions of Cincinnati was numbered among the things that were.

THE SECOND EXPOSITION

was held from September 6th to October 7, 1871, under the joint auspices of the three bodies managing the Ex- position of the previous year. A. T. Goshorn was presi- dent, assisted by a very capable staff of officers, com- mitteemen, and employes. It was a great success. Exhibits were made from twenty-nine States; over four hundred thousand persons visited it; and the receipts were seventy-three thousand four hundred and ten dol- lars and eighty-eight cents. Notwithstanding this large receipt, however, there was a deficit of nearly fifteen thousand dollars, caused by the large building account, which aggregated forty-seven thousand fifty-four dollars and fifty-two cents.

THE EXPOSITION OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY- TWO,

under the same auspices, was held September 4th to October 5th. Mr. Goshorn was again president, and to his energy and rare executive ability is due much of the success of these displays. A new building for the Art department, sixty-two by sixty feet, had been constructed in the open square (now Washington park) opposite the main building and connected with it by a bridge across Elm street. A Horticultural hall was also built; a De- partment of National History was organized, and much more extensive arrangements were made for the Ma- chinery and other departments. The large sum of one hundred and six thousand nine hundred and fifty-five dollars and seventy-nine cents was expended upon this fair, which nevertheless yielded a deficit of seven thou- sand five hundred and fifty-three dollars and forty-eight

cents. Thirty States contributed to it; five hundred and forty thousand people visited it ; seven acres and a half were covered with the displays; and the receipts amounted to nearly one hundred thousand dollars. The premium list comprised one thousand and seventy-five medals and awards, and a supplemental list had to be prepared.

THE FOURTH EXPOSITION,

held in the same buildings and under the same auspices as before, September 3d to October 4, 1873, was some- what beclouded by the visit of cholera to the city a short time before its opening; but, allowing for this drawback, it was considered a decided success. An address was delivered at the opening by ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox, and the exhibition formally opened by W. H. Blymyer, president for the year. An immense guarantee sub- scription, amounting to two hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars, had been raised; but such was the financial success of this exhibit that it paid all expenses (over seventy-five thousand dollars), and gave a profit of nearly ten thousand dollars to reduce the indebtedness caused by the deficit of previous years.

Mr. D. B. Pierson at first, then Mr. George W. Jones was president of

THE FIFTH EXPOSITION,

held September 2d to October 3, 1874. The general suc- cess of the expositions was brilliantly maintained this year. Every hotel was crowded, and the principal streets were thronged with strangers, on the opening day, which was made specially impressive by a great military parade, including many companies from abroad. Addresses were delivered by Governor William Allen, the Hon. G. W. C. Johnston, mayor of the city, Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, and President Jones, and an oration by Mr. S. Dana Horton. A free "Industrial Exposition regatta," with liberal premiums, was held on the Ohio river on Thursday, September 14th, with great acclamation at its success. The exhibitors numbered one thousand seven hundred and twenty; the receipts were eighty-seven thousand seventy-nine dollars and forty-two cents, and the expenditures ninety-seven thousand eight hundred and eleven dollars and fifty-five cents. The next year, at the close of the Sixth Exposition, an assessment of fifteen per cent. on the guarantee fund was deemed ad- visable to clear the Exposition of indebtedness, then about twenty-two thousand dollars. It is the only assess- ment which has ever been made upon its guarantee funds.

THE SIXTH EXPOSITION,

held the next year, comprised among its special features the offer of very liberal premiums by the Mechanics' In- stitute, for the best automatic cut-off stationary steam- engine and the best stationary steam-engine slide-valve, not less than twenty-five nor more than seventy-five horse- power. Special premiums were also offered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Bank, and the dealers in tobacco, amounting to one thousand and sixty dollars in gold coin, for premiums on leaf tobacco, besides prizes for leading articles of manufactured stock. Mr. John J. Henderson was president this year. The Exhibition

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opened with a grand industrial parade through the streets and continued from September 8th to October 9th, and netted a profit of about nine thousand five hundred dol- lars, which, with the assessment upon the guarantee fund now ordered, cleared the Exposition of debt. The build- ings were all sold to the Springer Music Hall Association; the boilers were also disposed of; and the affairs of the Exposition, destined to a rest for four years, were left in a very satisfactory condition.

AN INTERVAL.

It was not thought advisable to hold an exposition in 1876, on account of the National Exposition, represent- ing the efforts of the whole country, being held in Phila- delphia. The scheme for permanent buildings was also now on foot. It was mainly promoted by Mr. R. R. Springer, who had subscribed one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars toward the erection of a great central building, to be called the Music Hall, and also fifty thousand dollars toward the erection of the wings, thus adapting the whole to Exposition purposes. The last subscription was conditioned upon the raising of an addi- tional one hundred thousand dollars by January 1, 1879. By November, 1879, only seventy thousand dollars had been secured, including a subscription of five hundred dollars by the Mechanics' Institute; but the necessary amount was presently completed, with five thousand dollars to spare, and the buildings were erected, at a cost, for the wings alone, of one hundred and fifty thousand nine hundred and seventy-six dollars and thirty-six cents.

THE EXPOSITION BUILDINGS.

The history of these great and splendid structures is, briefly, as follows: Soon after the musical festival of May, 1875, Mr. Reuben R. Springer, a wealthy and prominent citizen of Cincinnati, through Mr. John Shil- lito, the well-known merchant, offered a gift of one hun- dred and twenty-five thousand dollars to build a worthy hall for the festivals and other musical purposes, if the lot on Elm street owned by the city, opposite Washington park, could be had for perpetual use without taxation and at a nominal rent, and if as much more money would be raised for the purpose by the citizens. He afterwards added three gifts of twenty thousand dollars each. A "Music Hall Association" was formed and incorporated in November, 1875. It consists of fifty stockholders, se- lected to represent them by the whole body of subscribers to the Music Hall fund. They elect seven trustees, con- stituting a board for the management of all the affairs of the association. April 3, 1876, an arrangement was made with the city, such as Mr. Springer stipulated for, it being agreed, among other provisions, that neither stockholders nor trustees should receive any dividend or pecuniary compensation whatever by virtue of their con- nection with the hall. The necessary sum to secure Mr. Springer's gifts was raised through the activity of several public-spirited gentlemen; and the hall was erected in time for the May Festival of 1878. It, together with the great organ it contains, are described in our chapter on Music in Cincinnati.

The entire front on Elm street occupied by the Expo-

sition buildings is four hundred and two feet, of which one hundred and seventy-eight are taken for the Music Hall, and ninety-five feet on each side for the wings. The latter were specially erected for the Exposition, though it has a prior claim upon the Music Hall for its displays, as against the College of Music, which is the lessee of the hall, or any other organization. The build- ings are so arranged that they can be used separately or together, and the upper stories can be connected by bridges. The wings are in the same style of architecture as the hall, and harmonize admirably with it. They are three hundred and sixteen feet in depth and one hun- dred and sixteen in height. They are admirably adapted for exhibition purposes ; and, besides the annual Exposi- tion, other displays, as the Millers' Exposition of June, 1880, are occasionally made within them. The entire cost of the buildings is about half a million of dollars, of which Mr. Springer, first and last, has given two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. They together furnish a structure larger than any other ever built in this coun- try for a similar purpose, except at Philadelphia in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition, and are much the largest and finest built for such ends by private enterprise, with- out the least subsidy from a government, anywhere in the world. They are worthily among the chief glories of the Queen City.

THE SEVENTH EXPOSITION.

The board of commissioners, representing the three bodies under whose auspices the Expositions had been held, was reorganized October, 1878, for the purpose of arranging an Exposition for the fall of 1879. The com- missioners now were: For the Mechanics' Institute, Thomas Gilpin, Hugh McCollum, James Dale, W. B. Bruce, P. P. Lane; the Chamber of Commerce, William Means, Edmund H. Pendleton, M. E. Ingalls, W. S. Ridgway, James H. Laws; the Board of Trade, John Simpkinson, L. M. Dayton, E. V. Cherry, W. L. Robin- son, William McAlpin. The officers elected by the joint board were: President, Mr. Pendleton; first vice- president, Mr. Laws; second, Mr. Dale; third, Mr. Cherry; treasurer, Mr. Simpkinson; secretary, Mr. Mc- Collum; assistant secretary, John B. Heich. Under their auspices the Seventh Exposition was held Septem- ber roth to October 11th, 1879. President Hayes, Governor Bishop, Generals Sherman and Sheridan, and many other distinguished dignitaries, attended the open- ing, and those named delivered brief addresses. Exhib- itors from twenty-four States were present ; four hundred and twenty-two thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven visitors attended; and a clear profit of fifteen thousand six hundred and thirty-eight dollars and ninety-six cents was realized.

THE EIGHTH EXPOSITION.

December 17, 1879, the board of commissioners for 1880 was organized, with the same constituency as be- fore, and with the following named officers: President, M. E. Ingalls; first vice-president, James Dale; second, William L. Robinson; third, Henry C. Urner; treasurer, E. V. Cherry; secretary, Hugh McCollum. The Eighth Exposition was held under their management September

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8 to October 9, 1880, and brought togethertwo hundred and ninety-one thousand three hundred and eighty- five visitors, the largest number, fifteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven, being present on Friday, Oc- tober 8th, the last day but one. The total receipts were about sixty-five thousand dollars, expenditures about sixty-two thousand dollars, not including ten thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars and thirty-seven cents expended during the year from the profits of 1879, for permanent improvement to the buildings ; leaving a bal- ance of profit of about three thousand dollars. The re- ceipts of the last day, amounting to two thousand one hundred and forty-six dollars, were given to the Art Museum fund, which had been started by Mr. Charles W. West, on the day of opening the Exposition of 1880, with the munificent subscription of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The close of the Eighth Expo- sition was accompanied with the gratifying announce- ment that the additional one hundred and fifty thousand dollars required by the West subscription had been raised, and even more, the total subscription then being one hundred and sixty one thousand one hundred and sixteen dollars, or, with Mr. West's, three hundred and eleven thousand one hundred and sixteen dollars; and the establishment of an Art Museum in Cincinnati was thus an assured fact.

CHAPTER XXXV. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

NAVIGATION to the territory embraced by the State of Ohio commenced with considerable activity about the year 1799; and from the admission of the State into the Un- ion it became extraordinarily active down to about 1807 or 1808. Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut fur- nished the larger number of immigrants, though all the States had representatives in the immigration. Among them were but few speculators in large locations of land; most of them came to make a home in the fertile coun- try, intending by their own labor to improve, occupy, and enjoy it. They had comparatively little wealth; and that little had generally to be laid out for living expenses, un- til the land should be made productive. Many of them, coming from the older settlements to the Eastward, took boats on the Ohio, and in these floated or rowed down the river until their destination was reached along its shores, or they pushed up the Muskingum, the Hocking, the Scioto, or the Miamis, in search of it. Coming down the Ohio was easy enough, but getting up the lateral streams, by poling, rowing, and pulling, was work indeed. Upon these minor waters they were not infrequently de- layed, for days and weeks, for a want of a sufficient stage of water to float even their light crafts. It was slow work getting up the larger streams, too, however easy it might

be to get down. Major Swan, of the army, who had ta- ken a small troop from Fort Washington to Pittsburgh, wrote to the commander of the Fort from the latter place: "We arrived here after a passage of only forty-four days, in which we exhausted our provisions and grocer- ies, and had to lay in a fresh stock at Marietta."

Such was the beginning of the commerce of the Ohio, which has swelled to proportions so gigantic, and has been so important an element in the wonderful growth of Cincinnati. The chief places on the upper river, to which families or merchants traveled toilsomely to prepare for embarkation, were Redstone Old Fort, since Browns- ville, Pittsburgh, and Wheeling. In each of these there were traders who made it their business to accommodate strangers descending the Ohio with any necessary article -provisions, furniture, cooking utensils, or farming im- plements, or even boats-at a moderate price. Each had a large boat-yard, where the arks, keel or flatboats, and barges of the period were made-generally service- able, safe, and strong. One of sufficient size for an av- erage family, say thirty to forty feet long, cost one dollar to one dollar and a quarter per foot; so that a pretty respectable vessel, well boarded up on the sides and roofed to within six or eight feet of the bows, could be had for thirty-five dollars. This did not include the ex- pense of a mooring cable or rope, a pump, and a fire- place, which cost perhaps ten dollars more. Besides the "family boats," which were frequently used for transient purposes and then broken up for their lumber, a number of keel-boats plied on the Ohio and its tributaries, in use as common carriers of merchandise, household goods, and any other freight that offered. Their principal cargo, by way of import or export, was in flour, apples, whiskey, cider, peach and apple brandy, bar-iron and castings, tin and copperware, glass, cabinet work, millstones, grind- stones, nails, etc. The articles going up the Ohio were mostly cotton, tobacco from Kentucky, lead, furs, and peltry. The lines of barges regularly maintained by Messrs. Baum and Perry, Riddle and others of Cincinnati in the New Orleans trade, brought up cotton from Natchez, su- gar, coffee, rice, hides, wines, rum, and dry goods of all kinds then in demand, and carried back the produce of the Miami country. The Navigator for 1818 contains a paragraph noting the great advantage it was to the com- merce of Cincinnati to have this line in operation, slow as it was and exceedingly limited in its capacity as com- pared with the magnificent facilities of the present day.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 94

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666